General Blog

Central Otago Pinot Noir New Release Tasting

24-Nov-2017

Every year Central Otago Pinot Noir Ltd conducts a ‘Spring
Release’ tasting of the new release Pinot Noirs for a group of wine communicators. For this year, the wines tasted were
predominantly from the 2016 and 2015 vintages, two very good, high quality, but
different vintages. A small number of
2014s were also presented. I was
privileged to be among the invited guests.
My previous attendance was in September 2013 when the wines from the
2012, 2011 and 2010 vintages were featured (click here to see my report).

The day began with a series of introductory flights of wine
to set the scene. This allowed the
presenters to set the scene to the main tasting conducted after lunch. This was composed of a group of 2017
Rieslings, followed by a flight of wines showing influential trends, then a
selection of top-end 2016 and 2015 Pinot Noirs.
These wines were presented blind, and the tasting involved plenty of
discussion between the presenters and the guest communicators. Click here to see my report on this tasting posted in 'Tasting Reviews'.

View from Mt Difficulty restaurant overlooking Bannockburn

Tasting the 2016, 2015 and 2014 Pinot Noirs

The prime event of the day was conducted after lunch with 41
Pinot Noirs from the 2016 vintage, 27 wines from 2015 and 2 wines from 2014
served blind. The purpose was to obtain
an overview of the new release wines and a good impression of the
characteristics of each vintage.

It is important to note a couple of critical points on blind
tastings and how they affect the impressions of the wines tasted. I find that blind tasting puts the onus on
the abilities of the taster to recognise the nature of the wines. The positives of doing so are that the label
and background cannot influence the impressions of the wines. The taster’s experiences will come through in
how the wines are interpreted. Often,
wines that are subtle in character do not show well in comparative blind
tastings. Tasting with the identity known
allows the background of the wines to be assessed with aspirations and inputs
understood. However it takes a strong
taster to overcome the subtle influences of style and quality prejudices. There are clearly advantages and
disadvantages to both tasting approaches.

Climate Figures

Some climactic data was presented for the vintages to put
them in context of the recent averages.
2017 appeared to be a cooler vintage overall, as the rest of the
country, but a closer look showed that there was warmer than average conditions
in November and December (in 2016), but a cooler February, with end result of a
fairy average heat accumulation. 2016
had a generally warmer than average growing season, with particularly higher
temperatures than average over February to April of that year. The 2015 growing season had lower than
average temperatures in November and December (in 2014), but considerably higher
than average temperatures especially over February to April. Interestingly 2014 followed a nearly
identical pattern to that of 2017, but just slightly cooler in March and April,
and overall.

Sub-regionally, the Cromwell, Bannockburn and Pisa districts
experienced consistent growing degree days (GDD) over the 2015 – 2017 vintages,
with greater accumulation in 2016. The Gibbston
and Alexandra districts were a little cooler over these vintages, especially in
2017, though Gibbston experienced good heat accumulation in 2016.

The rainfall figures are very telling. Across all the sub-regions, 2016 was a much
drier year. The Pisa, Gibbston and Alexandra
experienced greater rainfall in 2017, and Gibbston had considerably high
precipitation in 2015.

View from Prophet's Rock 'Rocky Point' vineyard, southern Bendigo

towards Lake Dunstan with Pisa on the other side

The 2016 Pinot Noirs

My overall impression from tasting the 41 Pinot Noirs is
their friendliness. The wines are in the
riper spectrum showing darker fruit aromas and flavours, with the descriptor "plums”
appearing frequently in my notes. The
wines are generally fulsome with sweet fruit and softly ripe tannins, and
moderate acidity. The extraction of the
wines is generally very sensitive to the fruit and to the wine expression. The best wines show good structure and
degrees of complexity, especially with whole bunch fermentation as a
component. I found the oaking
well-handled, without extreme overtness.
Indeed, with the sweeter flavours, oak seems to be more compatible, than
in say, a cooler season.

As a group, there was consistency and the wines show a
strong degree of homogeneity. There were
not many wines extremely poor, but there were a good number of superior
wines. Overall the wines were of a high
standard. I feel they will be better to
be enjoyed in their youth, and may mature a little quicker than slightly cooler
vintages.

For me, 10 of the wines stood out as being of 5-star or gold
medal standard which I scored at 18.5/20 or more. 9 other wines were scored in the high silver
or 4-star range, indicating the consistency and depth of the vintage. Here are my impressions of them, in the order
of service, with their sub-region of origin.
I note that the Bendigo wines showed strongly for me.

Akarua Pinot Noir
2016, Bannockburn: Ripe dark-red fruits on the nose with plums and spices,
and violet floral lift. A little
reserved on palate but with a sweet, ripe-fruited core of dark-red fruits with
plum elements. Lovely balance with fine
tannins and acidity, the depth and richness grows.

Looking through my notes and the wines tasted, I saw that
the three Felton Road 2016 Pinot Noirs were scored somewhat lower than I have
rated them in the past, All three were
very good in quality here, but their cooler, more elegant nature set them apart
from the other wines. I believe I
appreciate what Felton Road winemaker Blair Walter is trying to achieve with
his edgy earlier picking, and his wines are beautiful in their finesse and
detail. I think the Felton Road wine
style is aimed to fulfil the preferences of a sophisticated international Burgundy
appreciating market, and Blair achieves this with extraordinary success. Tasting these wines blind in with much riper
expressions does them no favour. I do
note that in my tasting of the Spring Release wines from the cooler 2012 vintage,
which I attended in 2013, the Felton Road wines performed superbly.

View over Mondillo Vineyard, north Bendigo

The 2015 Pinot Noirs

These were the more interesting wines tasted. I found the 2015s were much more classical in
expression, with less ripe fruitiness overall when compared to the 2015s. However, ripeness isn’t everything in Pinot
Noir, and the 2015spossess more elegance, with the fruit profile somewhat
cooler, with red berry fruits rather than darker, riper fruit. The descriptor "plum” hardly appeared in my
notes. The flavours are more savoury and
herbal elements are more prevalent. What
the 2015s show is structure, with good tannin extraction and more vibrant
acidity, lending the wines increased freshness.
In the best wines, this translates to increased longevity. However, the vintage yielded greater variability. While the top wines are at the same quality
as the 2016s, and indeed other vintages, there are proportionally more wines at
the lesser levels, these wines being distinctly cooler in fruit, lighter in
depth and weight, and maybe less friendly in balance.

Of the 27 wines tasted, I rated 5 at the 5-star, gold medal
or 18.5/20 points threshold. There were
also 6 wines in the high silver or 4-star level. This is slightly lower than that seen in the
2016s. Due to the smaller sample size,
it is difficult to highlight any sub-region performing better than others for
me, though two were from the Pisa region, and from the same producer. Here are my impressions of the top 6 wines in
this group, in the order of service and with their sub-region of origin.

Amisfield ‘RKV
Reserve’ Pinot Noir 2015, Pisa: This is fulsome, solid but rounded on the
nose with ripe black-berried fruits along with plum nuances unveiling liquorice
and spice notes. Rich with well-ripened
black berry and plum flavours, with liquorice notes, plush with ripe tannins
and some alcoholic power. A very strong
wine.

Amisfield Pinot Noir
2015, Pisa: Rich and plush on the nose with ripe dark berry and plum notes
with liquorice elements. This is a
sweet-fruited wine with dark-red berries, hints of liquorice and spice. The tannins are fine-grained, and the acidity
lends brightness.

Mt Difficulty ‘Growers
Series – Packspur Vineyard’ Pinot Noir 2015, Lowburn: This has a very
deeply packed core of ripe black fruits with nuances of plums. Sweet and plush on palate, this has black
fruits with liquorice notes and suggestions of whole bunch complexities. The extraction is fine-grained, and the
acidity balance. Lovely layers of
detail. Impressive wine.

Cloudy Bay ‘Te Wahi’
Pinot Noir 2015, Blend: Very firm and intense on nose with ripe
black-berried fruits with dark herbs, some whole cluster (?), and reductive
complexities. Rich and sweet, but taut
on palate, with black fruits and violet florals, hints of reduction, the
tannins are fine, and fresh acidity enlivens the mouthfeel.

With a sample size of 2 wines, it is difficult to make
proper conclusions on the vintage and the style of wines yielded. The two wines were bigger wines, hence their
good showing in a blind tasting format.
They also came on the tail end of a reasonably large number of wines
preceding. One wine at 5-star, gold
medal, or past the 18.5/20 criterion, and the other a high 4-star quality
wine. These being later new releases,
they also showed savoury secondary characters.
My note on the one 5-star wine follows.

Prophet’s Rock Pinot Noir
2014, Bendigo: This has a tightly bound and deep core on the nose with
dark-red and black fruits with complexing savoury game aromas from secondary
development. Richly fruited on palate,
this had depth and density with fulsome extraction and structure. Lovely dark red and black fruits and game
notes. Still very ageworthy.

A Final Observation or Two

Looking through my top wines, one
factor became noticeable to me. Almost
all of the wines I rated highly were made by ‘estate’ winemakers. The wines from the contract facilities did
not feature strongly for me. This
indicates that these ‘estate-made’ wines are more individual, or else that I am
a taster who picks up on individuality of character. Maybe this is a recognition of terroir as
well?

I am not one to denigrate the
work of the likes of Dean Shaw, Pete Bartle, the Dineens or Anthony Worch, as I
greatly admire the work they do. I know
these winemakers ensure that their clients have the best possible wines for the
market, and that they aim to preserve, if not enhance the character of the
fruit and vineyard source that the wines come from. I believe these winemakers try to avoid
homogeneity as well, but maybe ‘safe winemaking’ can take the edge off
individual and unique expression?

I am greatly heartened by the
degree of co-operation between the winegrowers of Central Otago. They recognise the strengths (and weaknesses)
and characteristics of the different sub-regions, and indeed celebrate
them. They also respect each other’s
individuality, and encourage each other to do well and better. The atmosphere is more than collegial, and
indeed enterprising. The region serves
as a model for the other winemaking districts of New Zealand in how to reach
and capture the market. My thanks to
COPNL for inviting me to this beautiful part of New Zealand and experience the
hospitality and great wines.